Dev Diary - June 2019

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It’s time for an update on what the Hinterland team has been busy doing since the last dev diary in March.

First off -- most of you probably know that we released a substantial update to Survival Mode, called STEADFAST RANGER, in May. If you happened to miss it, here’s a ~10-minute video that outlines the new content and changes introduced in that update. The most significant new item is the Revolver, which is an important tool in Episode Three. Having STEADFAST RANGER out in the wild, so to speak, has given us some useful player feedback on the Revolver and our revised shooting mechanics, and this feedback goes directly back into improving Episode Three.

EPISODE THREE

I’m sure you’re mostly here to get an update on Episode Three. I’m happy to say that it’s been progressing really well. Since we’re not giving public release dates anymore (reasons outlined here), I’m hesitant to put a label on where we’re at with progress, but I will say that the main story and mission content is mostly in place and we’re heading into deeper playtesting and bug-hunting now.

In terms of overall process, now’s the time where I go in and start doing deeper dives into the episode and making hundreds of editorial refinements to how everything plays -- does this event happen at the right time, is there enough time between these two big narrative beats, does this conversation flow naturally based on choices the player has made, do we need to add some dialogue to help clarify this character’s motivations, does this music sound right for this moment, does this part of the episode feel too empty, etc. There’s always a lot of fine-tuning to be done. For this process, I play through the episode from start to finish, trying as much as possible to see it with fresh eyes, as a player would, and I also play through it with my leads team so that we can workshop the episode as a group. The test team also starts doing a more thorough pass on things to make sure everything is working correctly -- save files, mission objectives, no content is missing, etc. This part of the process is a bit different from the rest of the episode’s development which tends to be more piece-meal. Now that we can see the overall structure and flow of the episode and test the content as it’s intended, we can see how well everything is (or isn’t) working. It’s the part of the process that can really make or break the quality of the experience, I believe.

A lot can still change with the episode during this part of the process -- for example, this was the part of Episode Two (Redux) development that we felt the Bear Hunt gameplay fell kind of flat and as a result we conceived of the Bear Cave section, to give the bear a more impressive ending to the story Jeremiah introduced us to. So, it’s still possible that significant things can be added or changed at this point.

It’s probably also worth recapping for you the things we’ve already shared about Episode Three to date: the episode takes place in Pleasant Valley, the core story and mission path will take about 5 hours to complete, and there is probably an additional 2-4 hours of side mission content. Of course, as with our other episodes, there’s a lot of variability in this play time based on how you choose to approach the game and missions, but we’re pretty sure Episode Three should come in at about the same length as Episode Two, maybe a bit longer.

We’re not ready to spill too many details on the Episode Three story yet, but I asked the team to pull together a few pieces of content they wanted to share with you, with the promise that it wouldn’t spoil too much. Please check the captions for more info:

Caption: In Episode Three, you might notice a new predator stalking you along the Pleasant Valley horizon line. Timberwolves are a lot tougher and smarter than the average Wolf you may have become used to tangling with. And they don’t usually hunt alone.

Caption: New threats mean you’ll need new tools to defend against them. The Blue Flare casts an unearthly glow on the landscape as you risk exploring at night.

Caption: Thomson’s Crossing. Most of Episode Three’s story takes place in this former mining town, and the surrounding area. It’ll take all of Astrid’s skill as a doctor to navigate what she finds here. What survivors will she encounter along the way, and what stories will they have to tell?

Caption: A warm fire within a sheltered hall. But who stands watch here, and why?

NEXT SURVIVAL MODE UPDATE

In my last dev diary, I mentioned we’re working on a new region that might be released in the next Survival Mode update (the next one after STEADFAST RANGER). I don’t have much to offer as an update to that yet except to say we’re still working on it. We’re trying something a bit different with this region, sticking with the approach of using each region to support a different play style or gameplay theme. The Survival Mode team is working on some other cool stuff but I can’t talk about it yet or they will [redacted].

NINTENDO SWITCH

Some of you may have seen this shared on my Twitter feed (where I often share unofficial tidbits of news and info about the game, when I can sneak it by the community team), but we recently managed to get the game running pretty well on Nintendo Switch. It’s taken a small group within the dev team several months to get to this point, so we’re pretty happy to finally be here. Performance is not great -- mostly the game runs around 15 frames-per-second, which can feel pretty choppy at times (30 frames-per-second (or 30 FPS) is the minimum needed to get smooth performance) so we’re still working on it. We’ve been working closely with engineers at Unity, the people who make the game engine we’ve used to build The Long Dark, because a lot of the issues we’ve encountered can only be solved at the engine level, and they’ve been super helpful and we’re making slow but gradual progress. We’ll keep you up to speed on how things develop but this is the first time we’ve been able to run the game properly without it crashing constantly so it’s definitely progress!

WRAP-UP

Looking over this dev diary, I feel like I haven’t shared much. I think it’s because most of what we’ve worked on since the last dev diary has been very spoilery stuff related to Episode Three and I just can’t tell you about it right now. As we get closer to launching Episode Three, we’ll begin teasing out more details and will release a story trailer at some point so that hopefully you’ll get properly hyped for the episode. We know it’s been a long time since Episode Two, particularly for those who didn’t try the REDUX re-release from last December (which, I must say, you really should play, just for all the new content and major improvements made over the original release of Episodes One and Two). I know at this point it feels like news is a bit few and far between, but please know that the team is hard at work on Episode Three and while it’s not as close to shipping as you may think, it’s not as far from shipping as you may think either.

If you’d like to ask questions about the game or our development process in general, I invite you to participate and read the (more or less) weekly Milton Mailbag column I do in the official forums. I’ve answered dozens and dozens of questions in over 36 individual dispatches over the past year, and while I try to stay away from spoilers there too, there are definitely some nuggets of gold hidden within some of my answers there.

I hope you’re enjoying these first early days of Summer. We’ll keep you posted and expect to hear from me with another developer diary in a couple of months.

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Thanks for sharing this info with us, Raphael. While I'm starting to get a bit frustrated with waiting for episode 3, I understand if you want to take your time. The news you shared look really damn interesting and I'm getting excited, so I really hope the result is worth it. The only thing I'm worried about are the future episodes - I assume all 5 of them will be released in the next two years at least, but it still seems like a really big ammount of time, especially when The Long Dark isn't in alpha anymore. I'm afraid most of the original community won't be playing TLD at that point.

Have a good weekend and stay warm! (even though that isn't particularly hard these days, especially in Europe )

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(Just to make it clear, @Admin posted this on my behalf -- I probably should have posted it myself, but we realized we've always done it this way. I'm grateful to have help as we post this info across 6-8 channels so it's a lot of communications and timing to coordinate. Also, there won't be a Mailbag today because I spent all that time writing this dev diary.)

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OK, so I'm speculating the sheltered hall is a church hall and the person standing guard is the church's pastor ... or Astrid's father, maybe?
The clue is in the candles - the first time we've seen them in the TLD game footage (not sure about the trailers) ... does this mean players will get access to them?

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Looking forward to dying in all new, horrific ways, lol! Love the look of Episode 3, and the new flare, town and the new (scary) toothy things.

What do you think dear Ralphy means when he says "Smarter?" Does this mean I can't bait em' with a nugget of gamey venison and smear there brains all over the snow? I hope not, as I know no other ways of killing wolves other then that method. I mean, I guess I could learn and adapt... poor Astrid, I'm going to get her killed so many times.

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What do you think dear Ralphy means when he says "Smarter?" Does this mean I can't bait em' with a nugget of gamey venison and smear there brains all over the snow? I hope not, as I know no other ways of killing wolves other then that method. I mean, I guess I could learn and adapt... poor Astrid, I'm going to get her killed so many times.

No clue who "Ralphy" is.

Raphael aka/Raph- I know who that is.

The gif with the candles... I knew it rang a bell in my head. Went into my Steam Backgrounds from Badges for the game and found this:

Hoping this image still holds true, or at least *mostly* true. A "Community Hall", possibly a converted church (?), mining union hall, or theater with a stage (?). Where it looks like multiple survivors took shelter together after TSHTF. And yeah... candles. Hoping we can loot some.

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Hoping this image still holds true, or at least *mostly* true. A "Community Hall", possibly a converted church (?), mining union hall, or theater with a stage (?). Where it looks like multiple survivors took shelter together after TSHTF. And yeah... candles. Hoping we can loot some.

Should be, in one of the trailers there is a community hall with writing that says "No Tomorrow" in it. In one of the recent dev diaries we got to see a potential match to this building from the outside as well.

1

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With Ten wolves in front of my porch I'll never feel lonely again in TLD, thank you Hinterland boys and girls! Haven't had the chance to play the game much lately but I'm really looking forward to episode three.

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Something tells me the Timberwolves might not be so easily distracted as have been their kin...﻿

Based on what the dev diary says:

11 hours ago, Admin said:

Timberwolves are a lot tougher and smarter than the average Wolf you may have become used to tangling with. And they don’t usually hunt alone.

Seems as if their main buff is that they hunt in a pack. Maybe when one detects you, they'll all know where you are and come running. Maybe because they hunt in a group, they're not as easy to scare away. Maybe when you kill one, they'll actively try to find and kill you (they'll spread out from their fallen sibling, following a gunpowder scent or the scent of the arrow). It's difficult to say with the limited information the devs have made known.

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If this comes out before the end of the summer i will glady have your babies. I can not wait. The thought of episode three has me shaking with joy. Also can not wait for the next survival update. Man im super gitty.

By the sounds of it you are in the final stages of episode 3 or about to hit it. I really hope you get it out before august. ^.^ 3 cheers for hinterland hip hip hurray hip hip hurray hip hip hurray ^.^ Bonzi! Bonzi! Bonzi!

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To me one of the most crucial no-shows in the game. I really hope candles make it in the game some way or another at some point.

Just hope the game doesn't turn into a shoot'em ﻿up at this juncture. Plus so far I feel like this could overextend on the zombie-wolf gameplay. But let's wait and see.

In fairness, I think this is just stage home décor, they just spawned a bunch of doggos to take that screenie. I doubt there will be that many wolves in a single spot, so my comment was pretty much in jest.

Excited to have timberwolves in the game, I feel like wolf struggle damage was diminished compared to the olden early days. Hopefully, these can one-shot you even when you're rested and fur clothed and are used to guard the loot rich locations of the maps.